VIDEO: This airline's holiday promotion has almost 30 million YouTube views

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December 18, 2013 at 1:58 PM

Many people have told Santa what they want for Christmas at some point in their life.

Generally, the more extravagant the wish, the less likely it's going to be under the tree.

For example, I'm pretty sure I asked for a fighter jet one year. I didn't get it, but other than that my parents were excellent providers.

WestJet had a Santa ask passersby what they wanted for Christmas, and when they headed to baggage check after their flight, they discovered their Christmas wish had been granted.

The company caught it all on video and put together a clever and heartwarming promotion. It said if the video got 200,000, it would donate flights for the holidays.

The current count is more than 29 million views.

Even if everyone watched only half the five minute video, that's 72.5 million minutes of advertising, branding and goodwill-building over only ten days.

While the project certainly wasn't free for the company, the cost of that kind of advertising campaign, equivalent to 145 million 30-second commercials, would be staggering and impossible to shell out.

What they say about the holidays, it turns out, is just as true for marketing: give a little and you may get a lot.